


All I want for Christmas (is our horrendous christmas tree)

by Neuqe



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Decorating, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-09-13 16:50:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9132889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neuqe/pseuds/Neuqe
Summary: Magnus decides it's the time for holiday decorations





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is the (slightly edited) malec secret santa fic for in-vulnerable-bb!

It was way past midnight when Alec heard the robust door open and close. He listened to the muffled sounds coming from the other room, and closed his eyes.

He had arrived back to Magnus’ loft hours ago from a hunt. He had not been hurt but he was thoroughly exhausted from it. He almost had fallen asleep on the subway earlier. All he had wanted to do was sleep.

Yet, when he had collapsed to the bed, he was unable to sleep. The bed was way too big for one, and his mind did not grant him the peace to sleep.

Magnus was still out attending his high warlock businesses. Alec could not help but worry about him. Rational side of him was arguing that Magnus was more than capable of taking care of himself. Yet, he could not be at ease.

Usually, it was him who arrived back home at absurd time, and Magnus was the one who stayed up. Alec had never understood why Magnus stayed up waiting him to come home until one night.

One of Magnus’ client meetings had continued for a longer time than expected and Magnus had appeared back to the loft with a knife in his leg, and kept muttering that it was only a scratch.

After that, Alec had developed a habit of staying awake and checking out that he was safe and preferably not stabbed.

Magnus walked into the bedroom, and collapsed straight to the bed.

Alec opened his eyes and glanced at him. Magnus had already closed his eyes. He was lying on his stomach. He seemed not to have any plans to make any sort of effort to move even though he was still fully clothed.

“Are you okay?” Alec asked softly.

“Relatively,” he muttered against the pillow without opening his eyes.

Alec chuckled, and gently pushed a strand of Magnus’ hair away from his face.

“That bad?”

“There are not enough words in the English language that could describe accurately how awful that meeting was, darling,” Magnus mumbled with an exasperated sigh.

He hummed as a response. “Any language fit for the purpose?”

Magnus opened his eyes. They gleamed as yellow like cat’s eyes in the dimly lit bedroom. He always let the glamour drop when he was too exhausted to keep it up, or when he felt safe enough.

Alec always got the tingly feeling in his stomach when Magnus did that. Sure, he loved Magnus’ eyes but the feeling was caused by the realisation of how much Magnus trusted him. He thought he was safe. That realisation was an endless source of happiness for Alec.

“Ancient Greek, perhaps,” he answered with a soft smile.

Alec laughed softly.

“What made it so bad?”

Magnus sighed deeply. He snuggled the pillow into a more comfortable position. He looked exhausted but his eyes were full of adoration when he opened them again.

“A long story. A dissatisfied customer required a spell that was complex enough to give me a headache. I cannot tell whether my head wants to implode or explode. Either way, it’s slowly destroying me.”

Alec reached to kiss his forehead.

“Do you need something?”

Magnus tried to shake his head even though he still had his head on his fluffy pillow.

Alec turned onto his side, and looked at him. His hair was messier than usually and his make-up was slightly smeared around his eyes. His eyes were puffy, and he was struggling to keep them open.

“Don’t do that,” Alec whispered.

“Do what precisely?”

“That,” Alec said with a vague hand gesture. “Don’t be so stubborn. Let me take care of you. You do this to me all the time.”

He opened his eyes properly, and took Alec’s hand into his.

“I don’t do it because I expect you to reciprocate it later,” he mumbled, and squeezed his hand.

“I know that,” Alec said simply. “But you are hurting and I want to do something about it. So whatever you need, just tell me.” He glanced at their intertwined hands. “If you need my energy, just take it.”

Magnus shook his head more firmly than before. He pulled Alec’s hand close enough for him to kiss the back of his hand.

“I appreciate the offer, darling, but it is not that kind of situation,” he said, “but painkillers would be tremendously appreciated.”

Alec flashed a small smile. He dragged himself out of the bed, and disappeared into the hallway.

Few minutes later, he was back with a huge glass of water and painkiller pills. He was also carrying a yoghurt cup and spoon. He struggled to prevent any of those falling to the floor. 

He placed all of the items to the bedroom table and sat to the edge of their bed. He handed the pills and the glass to Magnus.

“I also thought you might want to eat something, but all we have is strawberry yoghurt, so it’s either that or nothing,” Alec said, and handed the yoghurt to him.

“Thank you,” Magnus answered sincerely.

They sat there in a comfortable silence for a while as Magnus ate.

“Do you want the rest of it?” He asked and offered the cup to Alec.

Alec nodded, and took the jar and put a spoonful of it into his mouth. “How’s tomorrow?”

Magnus yawned. “I cleared my schedule.”

“We are gonna do some grocery shopping,” Alec announced as he finished eating the yoghurt, and threw the cup to the adjacent table. “That was literally the last piece of food we had.”

“Fair point, but we should also put holiday decorations on.”

Alec chuckled. “As you wish.”

***

“Isn’t it a bit early for holiday decorations?” Alec asked as he sipped his coffee.

When Magnus had suggested decorating the apartment with holiday decorations the previous night, Alec had thought it was only because he was exhausted, and that he was not serious about it. However, Magnus had stayed true to his word.

Alec glanced up and down the enormous Christmas tree that was dominating their living room. Rest of the living room was under the invasion of decrepit looking cardboard boxes, which were full of different kinds of ornaments and other decorations.

Magnus was rummaging through one of the cardboard boxes, but straightened up and looked at Alec.

“Of course it isn’t, darling,” Magnus declared with a brilliant grin.

“It’s November,” Alec pointed out softly.

He was not complaining, per se. Magnus seemed to be enthusiastic and happy, and that alone justified the decorations this early. He was only asking out of curiosity.

“Everybody knows that the holiday season starts after Halloween. It’s common knowledge.”

Alec chuckled. “What about Thanksgiving?”

“The pilgrims were murderers and turkey tastes like napkins.”

Alec snorted, and continued to sip his coffee. “I even understood that reference.”

“Wonderful. Educating you about pop-culture has not been in vain,” Magnus said with a playful smirk.

Alec put the empty coffee cup to the sink, and sat near to Magnus on the couch.

“So do you celebrate it? Christmas, I mean,” Alec asked.

It was their first holiday season without any major crisis. Celebrating holidays had not been on the top of their priority list when Valentine had been threatening to take over the world.

“I suppose so,” Magnus said with a thoughtful expression. “I’m not keen on the religious aspects of it, but it is so commercialised nowadays that I don’t have to worry about it.”

He pulled out a bag of ornaments from the box.

“Do you celebrate it?”

Alec looked at the tree instead of Magnus.

“I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. “We used to have this huge Christmas tree at the Institute. I guess my parents acquired it somewhere. We never decorated it. It just appeared overnight and it was fully decorated in the morning. We exchanged some gifts, but that was it.”

Magnus sat next to Alec, and placed his hand gently on his leg.

“Do you want to celebrate it? Because we don’t have to do all of this if you don’t want to, love,” Magnus said and gestured to the ten boxes on the floor.

Alec shook his head slightly.

“I don’t mind at all. I’d like to try at least,” he said, and the other side of his mouth curved up to a small smile.

“I suppose we will create new traditions then,” Magnus said with a brilliant smile.

“I would like that.”

Magnus leaned for a kiss. It was a quick kiss, but still full of warmth and adoration.

“Tradition number one, we will decorate the tree,” Magnus announced, and stood up.

Alec stood up as well, and picked up one of the cardboard boxes. He looked into the box, which was full of colourful and shiny ornaments.

“Is there some logic to this?”

Magnus laughed as he started to hang the first ornaments to the tree.

“No, not really. Just pick up the ornaments that look nice in your opinion,” Magnus advised.

They kept decorating the tree in a comfortable silence. Alec found himself enjoying the moment. It was peaceful and calm, and they were _happy_.

Until he made the mistake of looking at Magnus side of the tree. It was beautiful and organized. The ornaments were quite different from each other, but yet they fit each other and none of them looked out of place. It looked like it was straight out of a magazine. It looked exactly the kind of Christmas tree one would expect Magnus to have.

Alec’s side of the tree was completely different. There was no pattern whatsoever of how the ornaments were hung to the branches. They were grouped unevenly and even though he had only used few specific colours, they did not seem to go well together. Besides, the colours he had chosen were different from the ones Magnus had used.

The tree was a mess. It looked ridiculous.

Alec could not help but start laughing. His laughter was light and bubbly, and he could not stop.

Magnus looked at him with a puzzled expression. Alec just pointed at the tree.

“Look at it,” he wheezed.

Magnus chuckled as well. “It looks,” he said and attempted to find a suitable word, “interesting.”

“That’s one way to say it,” Alec said. He was still snickering when he looked at the tree. “Maybe I should just take them off,” he said and was already taking one of the red ornaments away but Magnus placed his hand on his arm to prevent him from doing it.

“Leave them there. I think it is growing on me.”

Alec shot a suspicious look at him. “Seriously?”

Magnus nodded slowly, and kept looking at the tree. “It looks like it is our tree.”

“I’m trying to turn that into a compliment in my head,” Alec said with a smile.

Magnus poked him in the arm. “What I mean is that, it’s our tradition. Our tree can look like we want it to. And I think that tree looks like us. Nobody would expect it to work, but somehow the sides complement each other.”

Alec broke into a giant smile.

**Author's Note:**

> I thought it would be nice to publish this now that the secret santa thing has ended. I would like to formally apologize for the lame name of the fic, and also everyone who recognises the reference gets a cookie.


End file.
